Red & White Spring Game Rosters (PDF)

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University football program's annual action-packed spring weekend has arrived.

In the middle of it is the Raiders' Red & White Spring Game, which kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday at Raider Stadium. The game will consist of two separate teams (as opposed to an offense versus defense format) and four 12-minute running quarters, with the clock stopping only at the end of each half.

SOU, coming off its second straight appearance in the national title game, is ranked No. 2 in the NAIA spring poll. The Raiders lost 23 lettermen but have 45 back, including seven starters on defense and six on offense, and had a total of 85 players in spring practice.

Admission to the game is free, and it will be preceded by a memorial tailgate and pep rally for Stan Smith – also known as "Mr. Rader" – who passed away on Dec. 29, 2015, at the age of 91. The tailgate –which is located in the parking lot behind the stadium on the corner of Wightman Street and Iowa Street – begins at 3:30 p.m., and the Smith family will provide hot dogs, macaroni salad, coleslaw and baked beans. At 4:30 p.m., head coach Craig Howard and the Raider football team will honor Mr. Raider.

Smith was an all-conference member of the Southern Oregon College football team from 1946-49, graduated in 1951 and was inducted into the NAIA District II Hall of Fame in 1973. He was an adamant supporter of the Raiders until the very end, and he and his late wife, Tommie, were founding members of the Raider Athletic Association (now known as the Raider Club). Stan was inducted into the SOU Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and Tommie was inducted in 2008.

"Stan was always there for our players on and off the field and his relationship with them went well beyond that of a normal alum; he got to know them on a personal level and he was the most loyal guy to this team that there was, through the good years and the bad ones," Howard said. "He means so much to people all over the Rogue Valley and we miss him, but he's a guy that we're going to remember and honor forever."

Stan and Tommie's son and daughter, Dane Smith and Dana Tuley, and his son-in-law, Lonnie Tuley, will be the honorary coaches for the game.

The festivities will spill into Saturday for the Raider Red Zone Golf Shootout, sponsored for the fifth straight year by Ashland's RedZone Sports Bar N' Grill. Last year's Shootout brought in a record of nearly $50,000 to the SOU football program, and this year's – which tees off at 8 a.m. at Eagle Point Golf Course – features 33 teams of five.

Owned by SOU alumnus Austin Loreman, the RedZone Sports Bar N' Grill is located at 303 E. Main St. in downtown Ashland.